“Becoming a Person Who Does Self-Care”: How Health Care Trainees Naturalistically Develop Successful Self-Care Practices

Abstract

OBJECTIVES Self-care is an ethical imperative for health professionals as it can mitigate the adverse effects of stress on professional functioning and health. Yet, there tends to be a lack of self-care among healthcare trainees and an insufficient focus on self-care in medical education. The objective of this study was to develop a grounded theory of how health trainees become successful self-care users. METHODS Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 students in a variety of healthcare disciplines. Data were analyzed using grounded theory methodology. RESULTS Health trainees underwent 4 iterative phases to become successful at self-care: Having a Wake-Up Call, Building Skills, Gaining Confidence, and Building an Identity. Our model also explained why some trainees were unsuccessful at developing self-care practices. CONCLUSION We offer the first theory to explain how health trainees develop effective self-care habits. Understanding how self-care practices naturalistically develop has critical implications for developing interventions and curricula: By basing curricula about self-care on knowledge of what works, we have an opportunity to be more successful as educators. Indeed, other researchers have noted a lack of success in self-care and anti-burnout interventions for healthcare professionals. We conclude by discussing implications and recommendations for medical training and curriculum for health professions, including augmenting naturally occurring processes, linking self-care to personalized values, providing opportunities for deliberate practice, focusing on persistence with self-care, and faculty promotion and acceptance of trainee self-care.